Sackett leaving Avista for job in Maryland

LOUISVILLE – Well-known hospital administrator John Sackett is moving to Rockville, Maryland, to be president of a 331-bed hospital.

Sackett currently is the chief executive and president at Avista Adventist Hospital in Louisville, which has about 114 beds. He will take on his new role at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Maryland in April, according to a press statement.

Avista officials said they will be a search to find Sackett’s replacement.

Sackett started his career at Boulder Memorial Hospital in Boulder in 1982, where he was an administrative assistant. He has served as vice president and president of Avista since it opened in 1990. Sackett also has served as senior vice president for mission and ministry at Centura Health, the Colorado health-care network of which Avista is a member.

The hospital administrator’s experience with cystic fibrosis has given him insights into how patients feel at the hospital, said Jim Boyle, chair of the Avista hospital board of trustees.

“Under his leadership, the hospital not only opened but thrived and became recognized as one of the nation’s top hospitals for patient, physician and employee satisfaction,” Boyle said in the press statement. “He will be sorely missed.”

Sackett served as a Louisville City Council member from 1986 to 1991 and as a Louisville Chamber of Commerce board member from 1993 to 1996. He also has been active in civic, community and industry organizations locally and beyond, including Community Food Share and United Way in Boulder County and the U.S. Department of Housing and Human Services advisory committee, the American Hospital Association and the Colorado Hospital Association.

He has a master’s degree in health administration from Loma Linda University in Novato, California. He and his wife, Sue, have two children in college.